Steamed eggs with okra and soy sauce is an easy, tasty way to incorporate healthy okra into your meal—and it’s pretty too!
Why We Grow Okra
We grow okra every summer. I love the dependability of the yield from my okra plants. They reliably produce fruit non-stop until the first frost in fall.
Not only that, the flowers are so pretty. They almost look like a pale yellow or cream-colored hibiscus, with a deep maroon center. First you get a stunning flower, and then you get a fruit. What is there not to love?
My only regret with my okra plants is that I don’t plant more of them. In order to get enough to cook a big dish of okra, like my spicy okra stir-fry with chicken, I have to harvest them over the course of several days. But with this dish, you only need a handful!
Rounding Out the Meal
We make steamed eggs very often to round out a Chinese meal of several dishes. If we’re not sure we have an adequate number of dishes, someone cracks three eggs, mixes them with water and chicken stock, and steams them. It’s always a delicious and welcome addition to our dinners. Not only that, it’s inexpensive!
There are many ways you can steam an egg, and this is one of them. Adding a sprinkling of okra slices over the top takes the dish from simple and utilitarian to elegant and pleasing to the eye! That drizzle of soy sauce at the end adds a nice layer of flavor as well.
It’s a fun way to add vegetables to a steamed egg dish and to try okra if you’re not familiar with it.
If you’re not a fan of okra, check out some of our other steamed egg recipes, including plain and simple steamed eggs, steamed eggs with crispy pork, three color steamed eggs, and a recipe from our cookbook, steamed eggs with chicken and oyster mushrooms.
On to the recipe!
Steamed Eggs with Okra: Recipe Instructions
Crack the eggs in a liquid measuring cup and note the volume (usually around 2/3 cup). Pour the eggs into a large bowl, add salt, and beat for at least 1 minute.
Now measure out water at the same volume as the eggs, and add it to the bowl. Do the same with the broth. Whisk in the sesame oil and white pepper, and make sure everything’s well combined.
(Sarah helped me blog this recipe, and she likes to beat everything in a 2-cup measuring cup. It can be more difficult to make sure everything is well-incorporated, so it really is best to beat everything together in a bowl.)
Pour the egg mixture through a fine-meshed strainer into a heatproof dish (a pyrex pie plate works well).
Add the okra to the egg so the pieces are floating on the surface of the egg in one layer.
Boil the water in your steamer.
Learn How to Set Up a Steamer
You may be surprised to know that you don’t need a bamboo steamer or other special equipment to steam food—just a deep pot with a lid and something to prop the dish of eggs on. Check out our article on how to set up a steamer for more details!
Place the dish of eggs in the steamer, cover, and steam over high heat for 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes have elapsed, shut off the heat, but keep the steamer covered. Let stand for 14 minutes with the lid firmly covered.
Remove from the steamer, drizzle with soy sauce, and serve.
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Recipe
Steamed Eggs with Okra & Soy Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- Water (same volume as eggs)
- Vegetable or chicken stock (same volume as eggs)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 4-5 okra sliced into thin rounds (4-5 okra weigh about 70g/2.5 ounces)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
Instructions
- Crack the eggs in a liquid measuring cup and note the volume. Pour the eggs into a large bowl, add salt, and beat for at least 1 minute. Now measure out water at the same volume as the eggs, and add it to the bowl. Do the same with the broth. Whisk in the sesame oil and white pepper, and make sure everything’s well combined.
- Pour the egg mixture through a fine-meshed strainer into a heatproof dish (a pyrex pie plate works well). Add the okra to the egg so the pieces are floating on the surface of the egg in one layer.
- Boil the water in your steamer. Place the dish of eggs in the steamer, cover, and steam over high heat for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes have elapsed, shut off the heat, but keep the steamer covered. Let stand for 14 minutes with the lid firmly covered. Remove from the steamer, drizzle with soy sauce, and serve.
